Sci & Tech

Faraday Future's planned FF91 electric SUV. The electric vehicle startup Faraday Future has put at least 250 employees on furlough, The Verge reports. The automaker has reportedly decreased its US workforce from around 1,000 employees as of October to under 350. Faraday confirmed that it has put additional employees on furlough in a statement to Business Insider, but the automaker did not disclose the number of employees that were affected. The automaker has struggled to build its planned FF91 electric SUV amid financial concerns. The electric vehicle startup Faraday Future has put at least 250 employees on furlough, The Verge...

The nation’s largest police force said Tuesday it is adding drones to its crime-fighting arsenal. More than a dozen unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) will be used for search and rescue, to investigate hazardous materials, and to access crime scenes in tall buildings. The move is particularly significant benchmark for U.S. law enforcement agencies because smaller police departments often follow the lead of larger, big city forces like the New York Police Department (NYPD). “The NYPD has a trailblazing effect when it comes to new technology and almost all aspects of policing,” said Christopher Dickey, author of “Securing the City: Inside...

Google has made several custom apps for the Pixel and Pixel XL, and its latest one appears to be an app called Sounds that was just uploaded to the Play Store, as spotted by 9to5Google. However, the link to the app is now dead — at least, temporarily. While it was up, the app listing described Sounds as a way for users to customize their alarms, ringtones, and notifications. It’s an updated version of the Sounds menu found in Pixel settings. As you test out each sound, the app uses colorful visualizations so you can better differentiate each ringtone from...

Verizon today announced that its first 5G — and I mean real, proper 5G NR — hotspot device will launch to consumers in 2019. The hotspot was developed in collaboration with Inseego and utilizes Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 chip and Snapdragon X50 5G modem. The two companies plan to showcase the hotspot running on a very small-scale deployment of Verizon’s actual 5G NR network in Hawaii at Qualcomm’s technology summit. (The event is being used to conduct tests of the “real” 5G networks for Verizon and AT&T.) With the hotspot, they’ll perform “a live virtual reality telemedicine demonstration in partnership with...

AT&T has announced that it will launch a 5G-enabled Samsung Galaxy smartphone in the first half of 2019. The carrier didn’t mention any names, but the Korean phone maker already demoed a video call over 5G using a Galaxy S10 prototype. Previously, the carrier announced a Netgear Nighthawk 5G mobile hotspot that will use mmWave technology. This will become available later this month and will work in the 12 cities which will get 5G coverage by the end of the year. Then in the first half of next year 7 additional cities will join in. Here’s the list: By the...

A 13,000-year-old mammoth tooth. A Labrador retriever puppy named Scout dug up a 13,000-year-old fossilized woolly mammoth tooth from its backyard in Whidbey Island, Washington. Owner Kirk Lacewell initially thought Scout just dug up a rock or piece of petrified wood, until he noticed upon further inspection that the piece looked like bone. Lacewell sent photos of the fragment to paleontologists at University of Washington’s Burke Museum, who confirmed that it's a mammoth tooth fossil. Most of the time, dogs dig to hide a treat or toy from a rival, or perhaps to reveal some delightfully pungent animal poop or...

By Joseph Menn SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A senior Apple Inc security expert left for a much lower-paying job at the American Civil Liberties Union this week, the latest sign of increasing activity on policy issues by Silicon Valley privacy specialists and other engineers. Jon Callas, who led a team of hackers breaking into pre-release Apple products to test their security, started Monday in a two-year role as technology fellow at the ACLU. Prior to his latest stint at Apple, Callas designed an encryption system to protect data on Macs and co-founded communications companies Silent Circle, Blackphone and PGP Corp....

Wolf 926F at Yellowstone National Park. Wolf 926F, also known as "Spitfire," was shot dead during a hunt five miles outside Yellowstone National Park. The hunt was technically legal, since it occurred outside national park boundaries. Some wildlife advocates believe the hunt was "senseless," especially because wolves are an integral part of the park's balanced ecosystem. The alpha female Lamar Valley wolf was frequently photographed and one of the most recognizable wolves at Yellowstone. A cherished Lamar Valley wolf known as 926F was shot dead after a legal hunt just five miles outside the sanctuary of Yellowstone National Park, prompting...

A man named Tinker clutches an HDMI cable as he bumps through the crowd milling in front of the stage at Family Karaoke, a joint on Dallas’s east side. A former Marine, Tinker has a solid but not overly muscled frame. Less weight lifter than baseball infielder. He has a voice that belongs on a live-fire exercise. It booms, even over the thrump of the techno blasting from two speaker towers on the stage.“Okay, what’s the first rule of this place?” he asks the crowd before answering his own question: “Don’t hack the venue!” This is the monthly meeting of...

UPDATE: The original renders were inaccurate and have been replaced with new ones. These feature significantly smaller bezels and also include a fourth rear camera. The original article has been updated and continues below:The Samsung Galaxy S10, S10+, and S10 Lite are three of the most anticipated smartphones of 2019. Leaks and rumors are pointing towards everything from display holes and triple cameras to in-display fingerprint scanners and no bezels. But today, in a very unexpected leak, the first renders of the upcoming Galaxy S10+ courtesy of 91Mobiles and @OnLeaks have been published online revealing everything about it.Kicking things off...

Snapdragon 855. That’s the name of Qualcomm’s new flagship processor for mobile phones, the company just announced at its Snapdragon Technology Summit in Hawaii. The announcement was expected — Qualcomm launched its predecessor, the Snapdragon 845, at the same conference almost exactly one year ago. But the new 855 isn’t just another spec bump — it’s the chip that will almost certainly appear in the first wave of 5G phones. Qualcomm has said this new platform will support “multi-gigabit” download speeds on 5G networks. See, this year’s Snapdragon Technology Summit is also one of the last major milestones before blazing-fast...

This story is from Inside Science. Just a few weeks ago, two large wildfires caused massive destruction and at least 91 deaths in California, the Woolsey fire near Los Angeles and the Camp fire that engulfed the town of Paradise in the north. Residents and firefighters struggled to stop both fires, yet they can expect more like them to come. Simultaneous large fires are becoming more common throughout the continental United States, according to new research presented by Alison Cullen today at the Society for Risk Analysis conference in New Orleans. The trend puts a strain on resources and will...